


The River

by TheAndorianMiningConsortium



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 18:55:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1698956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAndorianMiningConsortium/pseuds/TheAndorianMiningConsortium





	The River

The gentle cold of the caverns was a comforting sensation, cool and refreshing to tender skin, the icy mists that laced the air, shrouding the little figure in a whispy blanket as she walked. Jhamel liked the cold. It made her feel closer to the elements, and though at times it could chill her to the bone, that chill made her feel alive.

Through the caverns she wandered, although she knew that she should not. Restrictions were there for a reason, and she was not supposed to be out after curfew. But there was a certain, quivering excitement that came with breaking the rules. One that she had not known before almost three years ago. The fear of getting caught - the fear of not getting caught, and succumbing to some mishap, with no one to call for help. Before three years ago, she would never have considered creeping out like this, but now… now she was a different person.

The loss of her brother had struck her hard, and learning that he had died, not through natural disaster or through any kind of accident, had been a painful thing for her innocent mind to comprehend. Her innocence had been lost that day. She had felt real anguish and violence for the first time, fury and loss and pain, a sadness and an emptiness unlike any she had encountered before. The only comfort was that she had been with him at the end, but despite that comfort, she had felt what it was like to die. To say that it was unsettling would be a gross understatement. Words cannot describe the horror, the pain.

Now the world did not seem the same as it once had. It was altogether larger, vaster, more punishing and more brutal. She had always known that bad things went on outside the little town that she called home, but that was a fact that was far away. She had never really let herself imagine it, or recognise it, or realise it, until then.

Now, it was all she dreamed of.

Her meandering journey was without direction. She followed no particular path and she had no goal. She yearned only to explore, to seek out something beyond the barriers of her people’s lands. Her antennae quivered as she stepped through the silence, feeling out the way for her along the cold and icy paths, until, finally, the sound of rushing water told her that she had reached the river. An ice-covered brook that tumbled through the rock and burbled away beneath a solid, frozen surface. It would be too dangerous to cross the river. She knew that, she knew it well. She could not continue. She would have to go back.

A naughty glimmer crossed the delicate features of her face, as slowly and nervously she considered her options. And then, almost of its own accord, her foot gently rose, and she pressed her toes down against the river’s ice-topped edge. Even through the fabric of her shoe she could feel how cold it was, feel the hard surface buckle as she pressed her small weight onto it. If she stepped forwards all the way then she would endanger her life, for should the ice crack beneath her weight, then down she would fall, to certain death - the only uncertainty being whether she would drown or whether hypothermia, or perhaps a block of broken ice falling against a vital organ, might claim her first. A warm tingle ran up her spine as she pushed her foot down, threw caution to the wind, and raised the other.

She stepped forwards, onto the ice.

Once both feet had been planted upon the river’s surface Jhamel found herself shifting, sliding across the ice without moving her feet. The suddenness of it was frightful, terrifying, but it was also exhilarating, and she let out a nervous laugh. How stupid she was! Standing here at the jaws of death, for no reason at all! The silliness of it hit her almost as hard as the sudden and stark and unnerving realisation that life was so delicate and fragile a thing, that one wrong move now, could kill her in a split second. She trembled, and yet, she smiled.

For a full minute she stood there, unable to wipe the smile from her face. She felt the ice begin to crack beneath her, the sound of rushing water tumbling filling the air all around. Then she stepped back, onto the safty of solid rock once more, and began her journey home.

And in her small way, she gained her victory. Pushing the limits of her existance, her knowledge, her sense of reality, and her sense of self. She had been confined in the caves of eternal peace for far too long. Jhamel did not wish to embrace danger. But since facing it head-on, suffering and hurting and then weeping tears of relief when she survived to tell the tale… she had found that she no longer found real joy in comfort, without it. Without danger, one cannot appreciate safety. Without war, one cannot appreciate peace. She understood that now.


End file.
